A growing number of people are now finding themselves faced with a condition called “text neck.”
Chiropractors are rapidly seeing a growing wave of patients injured through heavy mobile device use. They are suffering from a condition nicknamed “text neck” since it results from staring at a smartphone screen for hours at a time.
The condition is caused by taking the posture used most frequently for texting, and doing it often.
The reason is that tiling the head down in this way places about 65 pounds of pressure on the spine. This can bring on chronic issues such as pain and tightness in the tissues. The primary concern from chiropractors is that the majority of people don’t realize it’s developing until it has already become problematic. As a growing number of people go mobile, the cases of text neck are increasing along with this trend. In this way, mobile device use is having a sizeable impact on our health.
Mobile device use is becoming an activity that can go on all day long, keeping people in one spine-pressuring position.
Chiropractors caution that this type of posture can easily become a norm. People don’t even realize that they are slowly slipping into this habit.
What is becoming truly shocking is the number of young people who are now having to see the chiropractor for help due to this condition. Text neck is leading patients of all ages into their offices. With the start of the school year it has only become worse. In fact, some chiropractors in Canada pointed out that they saw an influx of new patients along with the recent Pokémon Go craze over the summer. This had people staring down at their screens throughout the summer months when they would otherwise be out and doing something active that had them looking around at the scenery.
The advice chiropractors, optometrists and general practitioners are now giving their patients is to follow the 20-20-20 rule. This means that every 20 minutes, they should look at least 20 feet ahead for at least 20 seconds. This helps to make sure people look up, stretch their necks and use their distance vision more frequently. Changing position and stretching is an important part of avoiding injury.
